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500 Affordable Units to Rise on Housing Authority Land in Bronx and Brooklyn

Gertrude Moore, 71, a resident of the Ingersoll Houses in Brooklyn, said, “If they build apartments for seniors, I’ll be glad to go in.”Credit...Natalie Keyssar for The New York Times

Moving toward its goal of building 80,000 new affordable housing units over 10 years, the de Blasio administration plans to announce on Thursday that it will lease public housing land to build nearly 500 apartments for low-income tenants, most of them elderly. The apartments will be in three buildings that will rise up to 16 floors in the parking lots and grassland of housing projects in Brooklyn and the Bronx.

New York City has selected three private developers for the buildings at the Mill Brook Houses in the South Bronx and at the Ingersoll Houses and the Van Dyke Houses in Brooklyn. The additions to the grounds of the three housing projects will feature amenities and services like rooftop gardens, arts and technology programs, community centers, preschool education, social services and a walk-in urgent care center, housing officials said.

The agreements between the New York City Housing Authority and the developers are expected to be finalized by the end of the year, with construction expected to start next year and last about two years, officials said.

The sites were included in a strategic plan announced last year by the housing authority that seeks to shore up the deteriorating public housing stock as well as increase the stock of affordable units. The 489 units in the new buildings will charge below-market rents to households earning 20 to 60 percent of area median income — or $12,700 to $38,100 a year for one person — and public housing residents citywide will get preference for 25 percent of the apartments, officials said.

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An architect’s rendering of the 16-story, 145-unit building for people 62 and older that is planned at the Ingersoll Houses.Credit...BFC Partners

The new services and amenities will be open to both housing authority residents and the residents in the surrounding neighborhoods, officials said.

“We expect that our developer partners are going to integrate these new buildings with the existing community to ensure that residents feel there’s a benefit,” said Shola Olatoye, the chairwoman and chief executive of the housing authority.

Although the city has tapped available public housing land before to build affordable housing, the new construction comes as the city is struggling to keep up with the demand for low-cost housing and the housing authority is facing large deficits. The new all-affordable buildings are the first three of 50 to 60 similar buildings city officials envision on housing authority land; they are expected to generate about 10,000 below-market-rate units, officials said.

The all-affordable buildings are expected to generate up to $200 million in fees from developers over 10 years. But to raise up to three times as much, administration officials also have plans to use land parcels within public housing in prime real estate locations for buildings in which half the units would rent at market rates.

Already, plans for the first two of 30 to 40 of these hybrid buildings envisioned by the housing authority have been announced for housing projects in Brooklyn and Manhattan. But residents weary of gentrification are adamantly opposed to these additions. The concept proved equally controversial when first proposed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

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The new buildings will be going up on lots like this one in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.Credit...Natalie Keyssar for The New York Times

Residents have been more welcoming of the all-affordable buildings, partly because there is more consensus on the need for housing for the elderly, and housing authority officials have met regularly with tenants to hear their concerns. The developers chosen for the three lower-rent buildings are BFC Partners, a company that builds both affordable and market-rate housing; Dunn Development, an affordable housing developer that has already built on housing authority property in the Bronx; and West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing, a nonprofit provider of senior housing and services in Mott Haven in the Bronx.

The housing authority is leasing the land for the three buildings under 60-year leases that guarantee affordability for at least that long, officials said.

The proposal for “Ingersoll Senior” at the Ingersoll Houses in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, by BFC Partners, consists of a 16-story building with 145 apartments on the site of an unused grass area for people 62 years or older earning up to 60 percent of area median income. It will include a senior center with a large variety of social, health and cultural services.

At the Van Dyke Houses in Brownsville, Brooklyn, Dunn Development plans to build Dumont Commons, a 13-story building on the site of a parking lot with 188 homes for single adults and families earning 30 to 60 percent of area median income. The building will offer a walk-in urgent care and wellness center and many early childhood, prekindergarten and after-school programs, among others.

“It will bring tons of jobs to the community, at least 50 employees for the two health care programs and 33 employees for early childhood and pre-K,” said Martin Dunn, president of the company. “And we are committed to hiring a significant number of Nycha residents for construction jobs,” he said, using the acronym for the housing authority.

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Haywood New, 55, in the parking lot of the Van Dyke Houses in Brooklyn, where a 188-unit building is planned. Its amenities will include a walk-in urgent care and wellness center.Credit...Natalie Keyssar for The New York Times

Mill Brook Terrace in the South Bronx, by the West Side Federation, will have 156 units within nine floors for low-income older adults. The building, on the site of a current parking lot, will include a senior center, a community room for the use of the neighborhood and a rooftop garden.

The units will be available to applicants earning 20 to 60 percent of area median income.

Asked about the plans on Wednesday, however, some housing authority residents in Brooklyn said they had no knowledge of what was coming.

At Ingersoll, Samantha Newton, 49, said she had heard about the proposed building but she felt that, combined with all the other glassy residential buildings going up in the neighborhood, it would make the area “Little Manhattan.” She said she would rather see money spent on improving the existing buildings.

But another tenant, Gertrude Moore, 71, said: “If they build apartments for seniors, I’ll be glad to go in. I wouldn’t have to worry about kids playing in the hallway, throwing balls against my door, eating in the hallway.”

Still, she worried she may not have enough income to qualify. “Their low is not my low,” she said.

Nate Schweber contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 23 of the New York edition with the headline: 500 Low-Income Apartments to Rise on Housing Authority Land. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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